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This retrospective analysis seeks to explain why a group of children who had been matched for English proficiency and socioeconomic status (SES) when they started a school year, and who were subsequently taught and tested through the medium of English, differed in their school achievement at the end of that year. Factors considered include relative productive competence in English morphology, syntax, and vocabulary; verbosity; patterns of social interaction; first language performance; and personality factors. Extensive intra-group variability is reported, but several generalizations are drawn which have relevance for ESL curriculum organization and instructional practice: vocabulary knowledge is the single most important area of second language (L2) competence when learning content through that language is the dependent variable; grammatical accuracy is of little importance to students' immediate academic needs; communicative competence in social interaction does not guarantee communicative competence in academic situations; and the use of the first language (Ll) enhances conceptual development, even when it is tested through the medium of the L2.

This study focuses on children who go through a ‘silent’ period early in the course of second language development, during which they largely cease verbal communication with speakers of the second language (English). Video recordings with radio microphones under natural conditions revealed that most of these children engaged in extensive private speech, which they were found to use for a variety of intrapersonal learning strategies, including (1) repetition of others' utterances, (2) recall and practice, (3) creation of new linguistic forms, (4) paradigmatic substitution and syntagmatic expansion, and (5) rehearsal for overt social performance. Quantity and quality of private speech was related not only to the children's level of cognitive development and the difficulty of the learning task (confirming previous research), but also to the children's social orientation and learning style, and to the domain of knowledge (language) that was being acquired.

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